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Student Resources

Student resources are interactive activities collected from around the Web. They can be used to support related lesson plans or as standalone activities in the classroom. Browse our library of student resources by grade level or subject area below.

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Bringing in primary sources, such as oral histories to supplement the textbook is essential, and oral histories are a particularly valuable tool for cultivating historical empathy and nurturing a sense of caring among students.

Bringing in primary sources, such as oral histories to supplement the textbook is essential, and oral histories are a particularly valuable tool for cultivating historical empathy and nurturing a sense of caring among students.

Companion audio for “Remember” by Joy Harjo, lesson plan. introduce your students to the rhythm and sound of a Native American song, ask them to listen to the PBS audio recording of Corbin Harney of the Western Shoshone tribe singing “Water Song.” (Courtesy of Philomath Films, www.philomathfilms.com)

This video is the ninth in the “Incredible Bridges: Poets Creating Community” series. The companion lesson contains a sequence of activities for use with secondary students before, during, and after reading to help them enter and experience the poem.

This video is of the poet, Richard Blanco, reading the poem “Translation for Mamá.” The companion lesson contains a sequence of activities for use with secondary students before, during, and after reading to help them enter and experience the poem.

This video is the seventh in the “Incredible Bridges: Poets Creating Community” series. It provides a video recording of the poet, Elizabeth Alexander, reading the poem “Praise Song for the Day” composed for President Barak Obama’s 2009 inauguration ceremony. The companion lesson contains a sequence of activities for use with secondary students before, during, and after reading to help them enter and experience the poem.

This is an audio recording of the poet, Adrienne Su, reading the poem “Peaches.” The companion lesson contains a sequence of activities for use with secondary students before, during, and after reading to help them enter and experience the poem.

This audio file is a recording of the poet, Minnie Bruce Pratt, reading the poem “The Great Migration.” The companion lesson contains a sequence of activities for use with secondary students before, during, and after reading to help them enter and experience the poem.

This video is the third in the “Incredible Bridges: Poets Creating Community” series. It provides a video of the United State Poet Laureate, Juan Felipe Herrera, reading the poem “Every Day We Get More Illegal” and a companion lesson with a sequence of activities for use with secondary students before, during, and after reading to help them enter and experience the poem.

Poet Claudia Rankine reads her poem "from Citizen, VI [on the train the woman standing]” as part of "Incredible Bridges: Poets Creating Community," a project developed by the Academy of American Poets in partnership with EDSITEment.

Harriet Jacobs was a remarkable woman who was born into slavery in 1813 in Edenton, North Carolina, and died free in Washington, D.C., at the age of eighty-four. In her writing, she put an individual face on major social and political events of her era, particularly one of the most inhumane aspects of enslaved womanhood, sexual abuse and molestation by white men. After escaping from her master, she spent seven long years enduring great discomfort in the space she called “my dismal little hole,” a 9’ x 7’ x 3’ crawlspace above the porch of her grandmother, emerging only occasionally late at night to try to walk.

Poet Naomi Shihab Nye reads her poem "Gate A-4" as part of "Incredible Bridges: Poets Creating Community," a project developed by the Academy of American Poets in partnership with EDSITEment, the educational website of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), during the NEH’s 50th anniversary year-long celebration.

Elizabeth Keckly was a remarkable woman who was born into slavery in 1818 just south of the major market center of Petersburg, Virginia. She learned her craft—sewing—from her mother, who was an expert seamstress enslaved in the Burwell family. When Reverend Burwell, Keckly’s master and half-brother (they shared a father) relocated to Hillsborough, North Carolina, in 1832, she soon followed. Six years later, Anna Burwell, Keckly’s mistress, started a school for young girls in the family home, with an already over-worked Keckly charged as the sole servant.

Slave narratives are a unique American literary genre in which former slaves tell about their lives in slavery and how they acquired their freedom. Henry “Box” Brown escaped from slavery by having himself shipped in a crate (hence, the nickname “Box”) from Richmond, Virginia, to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1849.

"Aunt Chloe" is a character created by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, a 19th-century literary phenomenon who expressed her social and political views through poetry, novels, short stories, and speeches.

When Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society programs, especially the war on poverty and civil rights legislation, dominated most of the domestic agenda and the Vietnam War was being escalated abroad, the nation’s lawmakers and the president established a federal agency exclusively devoted to supporting the humanities, the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Thomas Day (1801–ca. 1861) was a successful free black furniture maker and businessman who stood “in the middle” of competing forces in nineteenth-century America: between black and white, slave and free, North and South, and Africa and America.

“A White Heron” was a short story originally published in A White Heron and Other Stories by Houghton, Mifflin and Company in 1886, then reprinted in Tales of New England (1890). Excerpts from the story are reproduced here to assist in your close reading of the passages. You are encouraged to read the entire story before beginning this activity.

This short video contains excerpts from David Walker's famous "Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World," a very significant document in American history. It is a call to freedom and to rising up and fighting against slavery with violence, if necessary, although that was not Walker's first choice.

O. Henry’s short story “The Gift of the Magi” reflects the true meaning of Christmas. This student resource provides English Language Arts students with an independent close reading of a Common Core State Standard exemplar text (grades 9–10) for fiction.

In this Launchpad, students explore a section of Galileo’s booklet, Starry Messenger, in which he describes his observations of the solar system and stars through a telescope that he made. This telescope allowed him to see the distant objects in the sky in ways that no one had ever seen them before.

Welcome to the Greek Theater! Take a seat and look around. Use the EDSITEment LaunchPad to learn about the structure of the Greek theater. Click on each section of the stage in the following image to answer questions about it and write down notes. Finally, "Test Your Knowledge" about the Greek stage. These instructions are always available by clicking on the Help button. Click on Finish to print out your work.

This Launchpad, adapted from the What So Proudly We Hail curriculum, provides background materials and discussion questions to enhance students' reading and understanding of “Chamberlain,” a chapter from Michael Shaara’s novel The Killer Angels. After reading the story, you can click on the videos to hear a discussion of the story conducted by Eliot A. Cohen (Johns Hopkins, School of Advanced International Studies) with the editors of the anthology, Amy and Leon Kass.

Drawing on the EDSITEment’s lesson plan on Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, this presentation will demonstrate how teachers can use EDSITEment resources to satisfy the expectations of the Common Core while meeting the diverse needs of students in the classroom. See also the related feature.

This Launchpad provides background materials and discussion questions to enhance your reading and understanding of Willa Cather’s short story “The Namesake.” After reading the story, you can click on the videos to hear editors converse about the story.

This Launchpad, adapted from http://www.WhatSoProudlyWeHail.org, provides background materials and discussion questions to enhance your reading and understanding of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.’s short story “Harrison Bergeron.”

In this Spanish-language launchpad, students will look behind the story at the historical, social, and cultural circumstances that help account for the great contrasts and contradictions that Esperanza experiences when she moves to California. The launchpad also invites students to contemplate some of the changes Esperanza undergoes as she grows from a pampered child into a resourceful and responsible young woman.

This Launchpad, adapted from www.WhatSoProudlyWeHail.org, provides background materials and discussion questions to enhance your reading and understanding of Benjamin Franklin’s “The Project of Moral Perfection” a passage from his Autobiography.

This Launchpad, adapted from www.WhatSoProudlyWeHail.org, provides background materials and discussion questions to enhance your reading and understanding of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “The May-pole of Merry Mount.”

Follow the instructions to use and complete this multiple-choice quiz on the names of colors in Spanish. This interactive has audio elements to it. The interactive is most effective when the user allows the audio portion of each panel to complete before moving on to the next panel.

Mission US is a multimedia project that immerses players in U.S. history content through free interactive games.

In Mission 2: “Flight to Freedom,” players take on the role of Lucy, a 14-year-old slave in Kentucky. As they navigate her escape and journey to Ohio, they discover that life in the “free” North is dangerous and difficult. In 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act brings disaster. Will Lucy ever truly be free?

This resource is intended to assist students in drawing interconnections between members of the small group of American literati that made up Thoreau’s circle based in Concord, Massachusetts, and who spawned the transcendentalist movement.

Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) was a former slave who became the greatest abolitionist orator of the antebellum period. During the Civil War he worked tirelessly for the emancipation of the four million enslaved African Americans. In the decades after the war, he was the most influential African American leader in the nation.

He delivered this speech on July 5, 1852. It is generally considered his greatest and one of the greatest speeches of the 19th century. Before you read the speech you can follow these links to learn more about Douglass’s life and the evolution of his thought in this period.

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, a major literary figure and the first great Latin American poet, is a product of el Siglo de Oro Español (Spanish Golden Age). This exercise introduces students to her sonnet, “A su retrato.”

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, a major literary figure, and the first great Latin American poet, is a product of el Siglo de Oro Español (Spanish Golden Age). Explore the different facets of this painting to learn about Sor Juana and what the life of a nun was like in the 17th century.

By examining The Doveby artist Romare Bearden, students will learn to appreciate the artistic and intellectual achievement of Black artists in America in the first half of the 20th century. By listening to music, students will see how art and music intersect to tell us a story. They will relate that story to their own lives.

The story of the Ramayana has been passed from generation to generation by numerous methods and media. Initially it was passed on orally as an epic poem that was sung to audiences by a bard, as it continues to be today. Over the centuries it has also been written down in numerous languages.

On April 11, 1898, two months after the battleship U.S.S. Maine was destroyed by an explosion in Havana harbor, President McKinley sent a message to Congress requesting authority to use the U.S. armed forces to end a brutal civil war in the Spanish colony of Cuba.

Students should fill in yes or no in the boxes beneath each of the teachings to indicate whether it is a component of that teaching. In the final box they should fill in a line of from one of the poems which exemplifies this idea wherever it is possible to find an example.

Roll over the image to explore the areas of the painting, clicking to bring up the descriptive pop-ups. Make notes in the pop-up's tabs to prepare you for the follow-on multiple-choice questions (under "Test Your Knowledge"), and answer the essay questions on the pop-up tabs. After completing these tasks, follow the instructions for printing out your answers and notes, and you can also print the image istself.

Mission US (Mission 1: Crown or Colony?) is an interactive adventure game designed to improve the understanding of American history by students in grades 5 through 8.

The first game in a planned series, Mission 1: “For Crown or Colony?” explores the reasons for Revolution through the eyes of both Loyalists and Patriots in 1770 Boston. This website provides information and materials to support the use of Mission 1 in your classroom. Download all the teacher materials as a DOC or PDF.

Begin the lesson by assigning students to either read or view Twelve Angry Men. Distribute the following questions beforehand. These same questions may serve as the basis for either group or class discussion of the play/film.

Come along with EDSITEment this summer and discover the multilayered heritage of the peoples who call New Mexico their homeland. Our virtual road trip will take us through the terrain and annals of American history which characterize this remarkable landscape.

In this launchpad, teachers will instruct students about one of the most important elements in painting and drawing: line. Students learn how line is defined in the visual arts, and how to recognize this element in painting.

In this launchpad students learn about one of the most important elements in painting and drawing: line. Students learn how line is defined in the visual arts, and how to recognize this element in painting.

In this launchpad, teachers will instruct students about repetition, one of the techniques artists often use to highlight important elements within a painting's composition, and to move a viewer's eye around the canvas, from highpoint to highpoint.

In this Launchpad students will learn about repetition, one of the techniques artists often use to highlight important elements within a painting's composition, and to move a viewer's eye around the canvas, from highpoint to highpoint.

By 1900, there were more than 29 million people in the American workforce including men, women, and children. Americans worked an average of 59 hours per week and usually received Saturday afternoons and Sundays off. Many companies provided unpaid leave to their employees. How do you think Americans might have spent their leisure time a century ago?

In this assignment students will use the interactive archives at the EDSITEment reviewed website the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to provide them with evidence that the impulse to resist remained alive during the Holocaust. You can access the museum's collections, including the archive, here. Students can use the online note-taker and outline tool to record their findings. Ask students to complete the following task:

Drawing upon the online archives of the U.S. Holocaust Museum, this lesson helps students to put the events described by Anne Frank into historical perspective, and also serves as a broad overview of the Nazi conquest of Europe during World War II. After surveying the experiences of various countries under Nazi occupation, the lesson ends with activities related specifically to the Netherlands and Anne Frank.

Australian Aboriginal art is one of the oldest continuing art traditions in the world. Much of the most important knowledge of aboriginal society was conveyed through different kinds of storytelling—including narratives that were spoken, performed as dances or songs, and those that were painted.

Are you ready for an “EDSITEing” journey with Marco Polo? If you've studied the material on Marco Polo, this adventure should be a breeze! A route and timeline for Marco Polo's travels to and from China. In conjunction with the curriculum unit: On the Road with Marco Polo

Have students complete the first chart—"George Washington's Early Military Experience." Discuss the results. What signs were there in his early career that Washington would become an effective military leader? In what ways did he show in his military career up to 1758 that he was learning from experience?

Although the campaign in the Mediterranean was successful in forcing Italy out of the war, Allied military planners by late 1943 had concluded that it would not be enough to defeat Nazi Germany. As a result, priorities were shifted to an invasion of France across the English Channel.

Fill in the white text boxes below each question (Please Note: wrap text in the boxes and use punctuation marks to save space instead of separating items with carriage returns). For information to help you answer the questions, use the following web sites as references: Aztec Society — Conquistadors. When you complete your answers, print out this page.

Fill in the white text boxes below each question (Please Note: wrap text in the boxes and use punctuation marks to save space instead of separating items with carriage returns). For information to help you answer the questions, use the following web sites as references: Aztec Society — Conquistadors. When you complete your answers, print out this page.

This lesson plan highlights the importance of First Amendment rights by examining Norman Rockwell’s painting of The Four Freedoms. Students discover the First Amendment in action as they explore their own community and country through newspapers, art, and role playing.

Was the American Revolution inevitable? This launchpad is designed to help students understand the transition to armed resistance and the contradiction in the Americans’ rhetoric about slavery through the examination of a series of documents. While it is designed to be conducted over a several-day period, teachers with time constraints can choose to utilize only one of the documents to illustrate the patriots’ responses to the actions of the British.

Look at the images below and describe what you see in detail i.e. clothing, jewelry or body decoration, what they are doing, village layout. Make some inferences about these people based on this image. Compare the watercolor to the engraving.

In 1691, a group of girls from Salem, Massachusetts accused an Indian slave named Tituba of witchcraft, igniting a hunt for witches that left 19 men and women hanged, one man pressed to death, and over 150 more people in prison awaiting a trial. Through this launchpad, students will explore the characteristics of the Puritan community in Salem, learn about the Salem Witchcraft Trials, and try to understand how and why this event occurred.

The goal of this Launchpad is not only to get you thinking about the differences between Xerxes and Leonidas, the Persians and the Greeks, but also to guide you to greater understanding of the way history is represented and interpreted from a specific point of view.

Death. Perhaps no other theme elicits such deep and varied emotions from individuals across the globe. It's no wonder, then, that poets through the ages—no matter the time or place—have sought to address death through poetry. Read the following poems by A.E. Housman and Dylan Thomas and begin to consider the theme of death in poetry.

American author Pearl S. Buck spent most of her life in China. She returned to America in 1934, "an immigrant among immigrants … in my native land." In this launchpad, students will explore American attitudes toward immigration in the 1930s through Pearl S. Buck's essay, "On Discovering America." They will explore the meaning of the term "American" in this context and look at how the media portrayed immigrants.

Focusing on only the last two paragraphs of the document, have students read the first sentence and try to figure out what it is saying (see selection in student launchpad and in separate PDF with questions).

Study Gardner's Abraham Lincoln, February 5, 1865, and fill out The National Archives Photo Analysis Worksheet. Use the worksheet questions and the students' answers as a framework for a class discussion about the art. Encourage them to notice details that will help them understand Lincoln.

Through this Launchpad, study Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and study her treatment of social class in the early 19th century as well as learn about the status of women in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

This launchpad asks students to explore the various roles that Eleanor Roosevelt took on, among them: First Lady, political activist for civil rights, newspaper columnist and author, and representative to the United Nations. Students will read and analyze materials written by and about Eleanor Roosevelt to understand the changing roles of women in politics. They will look at Eleanor Roosevelt's role during and after the New Deal as well as examine the lives and works of influential women who were part of her political network. They will also examine the contributions of women in Roosevelt's network who played critical roles in shaping and administering New Deal policies.

Students will use primary source documents to learn about the debate over the Social Security Act that took place from 1935-1937. This launchpad will introduce students to key arguments supporting and opposing the establishment of Social Security.

What was life like for women during the Victorian age? You will explore several websites that describe life in the Victorian era, a term used to describe the culture and society during the reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901. Keep in mind that like all broad claims about a society, the following are examples of life during this time, and only begin to reveal the complexity of Victorian-era livelihood.

Published in 1929, The Sound and the Fury is often referred to as William Faulkner's first work of genius. Faulkner's style is characterized by frequent time shifts, narrator shifts, unconventional punctuation and sentence structure, as well as a stream-of-consciousness technique that reveals the inner thoughts of characters to the reader. This launchpad will examine narrative structure and time, narrative voice/point of view, and symbolism throughout The Sound and the Fury.

In this launchpad students will look behind the story at the historical, social, and cultural circumstances that help account for the great contrasts and contradictions that Esperanza experiences when she moves to California. The launchpad also invites students to contemplate some of the changes Esperanza undergoes as she grows from a pampered child into a resourceful and responsible young woman.

Heavily influenced by social and scientific theories, including those of Darwin, writers of naturalism described—usually from a detached or journalistic perspective—the influence of society and surroundings on the development of the individual. In the following launchpad, students will learn the key characteristics that comprise American literary naturalism as they explore London's "To Build a Fire" and Crane's "The Open Boat."

Read Gwendolyn Brooks' poem "We Real Cool" out loud to yourself a few times. Then watch the video of John Ulrich discussing and reading "We Real Cool" as part of the EDSITEment-reviewed Library of Congress Favorite Poems Project. Pay particular attention to how you read the poem and how the poem is read in the Favorite Poems Project video—what words are emphasized? what kind of rhythm is established?

Students examine the relationship of poetic form and content, shaped by alliteration, consonance, repetition, and rhythm, in two poems about fatherhood: Robert Hayden's "Those Winter Sundays" and Theodore Roethke's "My Papa's Waltz."

Today's starting point? Atlanta. Destination? Florida. Although the family in "A Good Man is Hard to Find" lives in Atlanta, their journey to Florida takes them along the relatively new highways of the 1950s, including rural country roads.

This interactive map shows the sequence of events in Europe during the early years of the Cold War, as well as their geographic locations. By clicking on the numbered locations pop-ups will appear with more information.Accompanies the curriculum unit: The Origins of the Cold War, 1945-1949.

The rivalry between the Federalists and Republicans was bitter. What were the key positions of the parties? How important to the parties' positions were their basic attitudes toward constitutional interpretation (Federalists, broad interpretation / Democratic-Republicans, strict interpretation)? Which positions of either party resonate in the politics of today? Fill in the respective party positions for each category listed.

The rivalry between the Federalists and Republicans was bitter. What were the key positions of the parties? How important to the parties' positions were their basic attitudes toward constitutional interpretation (Federalists, broad interpretation / Democratic-Republicans, strict interpretation)? Which positions of either party resonate in the politics of today? Fill in the respective party positions for each category listed. Fill in the respective party positions for each issue category listed

Use the Venn Diagram, with two intersecting circles. One circle is for Marshall's arguments in the section of his opinion quoted in McCulloch v. Maryland (1819), the other for Madison's. In the intersection between the two circles put those arguments that are essentially the same for both men. Begin by making a list.

As a class or in small groups, with each group assigned one section only, look at seven elements of the office of President in Hamilton's words. Compile a list of the powers and responsibilities of the President based on Hamilton's essay and/or additional resources. Can be used with the curriculum unit: Before and Beyond the Constitution: What Should a President do?

Beyond the obvious material destruction, there was more to reconstruct in the South than buildings, farms, manufacturing and railroads—there were social and political relationships to rebuild. Yet, it is impossible to understand Reconstruction fully without a grasp of the social and economic upheaval the war brought with it. For the people living through the times, this upheaval created a situation that demanded immediate attention.

An interactive map showing the shifting territorial gains, losses, and shifting alliances from June 1941 to February 1945. For use in conjunction with the curriculum unit: American Diplomacy in World War II

An interactive political and demographic map of the U.S. in 1854 that allows users to see the economic, demographic, and political makeup of regions and states at the time. The Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854: Popular sovereignty allowed the settlers of a federal territory to decide the slavery question without interference from Congress.

A student interactive that uses a series of animated maps to summarize all the factors and statistics on the United States on the eve of the American Civil War. Accompanies the EDSITEment curriculum unit: The American Civil War: A "Terrible Swift Sword."

At the time of Woodrow Wilson's inauguration, the United States had extensive economic and strategic interests throughout Latin America. Accompanies the EDSITEment curriculum unit: Woodrow Wilson and Foreign Policy.

This interactive puts the student in the role of President Kennedy, having to decide among several options for responding to the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba. By clicking on the names of individual advisers, students can read the views of men such as Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, and Attorney General Robert Kennedy. After studying the strengths and weaknesses of each option, the student will be asked to choose an option, which will then bring up a new window that evaluates the response.

Why did thousands march over 50 miles through cold, Alabama rain in 1965? With this interactive, students learn about the Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march, one of the seminal events of the Civil Rights movement.

This student interactive timeline, from the curriculum unit, “The United States and Europe: From Neutrality to War, 1921–1941,” is designed to illustrate the U.S. response to crises in Europe and East Asia during the years 1931–1941.